Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis

Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis Vitamin D also appears to influence immunity and lower the risk of some types of auto -immune diseases. Recently, Elina Hypponen, Ph.D., of the Institute of Child Health, London, and her British and Finnish coresearchers reported that adequate intake of vitamin D may reduce the risk of type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes, characterized by an autoimmune attack on the insuling -producing pancreas. In tracking the health of more than 10,000 infants and children, Hypponen foun d consistent intake of vitamin D-containing supplements reduced the risk of type 1 diabetes by 88 percent, compared with no supplementation. Irregular supplementation was almost as protective. Even people at risk of type 2 (noninsulin -dependent) diabetes might benefit from vitamin D. Researchers at University Hospital, Aachen, Germany, found that a VDR defect, slightly different from the one involved in breast cancer, increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by more than three and one-half times. Vitamin D might also reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease that attacks the delicate sheaths surrounding nerves. The prevalence of MS tends to increase in populations living farther from the equator, where there are seasonal fluctuations in sunlight - and exposure to sunlight. In an animal study, Colleen E. Hayes, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has shown that vitamin D suppresses the some of the inflammation underlying MS.